About

What is this game about?

Yandere Simulator is a stealth game about stalking a boy and secretly eliminating anyone who seems interested in him, while maintaining the image of an innocent schoolgirl.

What does "Yandere" mean?

A Yandere girl is a girl who loves a boy so much that she is willing to threaten, harm, or kill any other girl who seems interested in him.

What is the gameplay like?

The gameplay is similar to the Hitman series; you are put into a large environment filled with many NPCs, and you must track down a specific target and eliminate them. You can use stealth to kill your target without any witnesses, stage an accident that leaves no evidence, or just slaughter anyone who gets in your way. If you don't dispose of corpses, clean up blood, and destroy evidence, then the police might be able to link you to a murder and arrest you.

If you don't want to get any blood on your hands, you can use social sabotage to get rid of a girl; frame her for one of your crimes, get her expelled from school, or ruin her reputation. If you truly want her to suffer, you could convince every other girl in school to bully her until she commits suicide and saves you the trouble.

If the boy you love witnesses you committing murder, he could never love you, and the game would be over.

What kind of features will this game have?

Here is a short list of some of the features you can look forward to:

Persistent Reputation: When you are spotted doing something incriminating, students will gossip about you. When your reputation is low, students will be cautious around you, and will consider you to be suspicious. When your reputation is high, students will let their guard down around you, and will be willing to do favors for you.

Sanity Level: When you perform an act of violence, you will lose Sanity. This will cause you to appear visibly insane. If you lose too much Sanity, people will be able to tell that you are insane just by looking at you. If the boy you love sees you like this, he could never love you, and the game would be over.

Sanity-Determined Kill Animations: The killing animations will be determined by your current level of Sanity. When your Sanity is high, your kills will be efficient, quick, and silent. When your Sanity is low, your kills will be sloppy, messy, and noisy. When you have lost all Sanity, your kills will be long, brutal, and sadistic.

Yandere Vision: A button on the keyboard / controller will be dedicated entirely "Yandere" actions, such as creepy laughter. When Yandere Vision is active, important characters and objects will be highlighted and visible through walls.

Panty Shots: A certain character will perform important favors for you if you send them photographs of girls' panties. Panty shots are a "currency" that can buy favors and give you various advantages.

I want to suggest a feature for the game! How can I contact you?

I'm very sorry, but at this point in time, I do not want to receive any suggestions or requests.

What game engine are you using?

I am developing Yandere Simulator using the Unity game engine.

Will it be possible to win the game without committing murder?

Yes! There will be several non-lethal elimination methods available.

Will you put this game on Kickstarter or Steam Greenlight?

I plan to eventually make a Kickstarter and put the game on Steam Greenlight, but not until the game has reached a more presentable and respectable state.

What are the system requirements?

It's far too early to say. I won't be able to tell you the system requirements until after I have finished adding all features to the game.

Is there character customization? Do I have a selection of boys to stalk? Can I have a female "Senpai" instead of a male "Senpai"?

Currently, the player can customize their Senpai's appearance at the beginning of the game.

I'd like to allow the player to change the gender of their Senpai, but this would require a lot of extra animations/models/voice acting, so it's not something I can guarantee at this point in time.

Can I choose the protagonist's gender?

At this point in time, I do not have any plans to allow the player to choose their gender. It is possible that it may become a "stretch goal" for the game's eventual crowd-funding campaign.

Will it be possible to mod the game?

I have already seen several mods for Yandere Simulator. However, it is too early for me to say for certain how "moddable" the final game will be.

Will this game have voice-acting?

I am currently collaborating with a number of volunteer voice actors and actresses who are providing me with voice recordings. However, it is too soon for me to say whether or not the entire game will be voiced.

Can I translate the game into another language for you?

I am grateful that you would like to help me out with the game. However, I would not like to ask anyone for a translation until after the game's English script has been 100% finalized. Once the game's English script is final, I will make a blog post and ask for volunteers.

Is "Yandere Simulator" the game's final name?

"Yandere Simulator" was only meant to be a placeholder title. I can think of several very compelling reasons to change the game's name to something that sounds more serious. However, at this point in time, I am not yet ready to decide upon the game's final title.

Will this game have an online multiplayer mode?

I have zero experience programming anything related to online multiplayer. It could take me a very long time to learn how to implement those kinds of features, so it's not something I can promise at this point in time.

Instead of attempting to implement online multiplayer myself, it might be a better idea to find a volunteer – or hire someone – who has experience programming online multiplayer modes.

What is the main character's name? What is the name of the love interest?

For now, the protagonist is named "Yandere-chan", and the object of her affection is named "Senpai-kun" (or "Senpai-chan" depending on their gender). In the final game, Yandere-chan's name will be something that sounds natural, but has "Yan" in it, so that her nickname can be "Yan-chan". Her final name will probably be "Ayano".

How much time will pass over the course of the game?

The game will take place over a period of 10 weeks. Each week, a new "rival" will appear and get a crush on Senpai. You will have one week to eliminate her. Yandere-chan will not confess her love to Senpai until all rivals have been eliminated.

Will it be possible for the main character to interact with Senpai?

Originally, I was not planning on allowing the player to interact with Senpai. I was imagining Yandere Simulator as a game about sabotaging a boy's love life, with no gameplay that involves befriending and romancing the boy. However, recently, I have been re-considering this.

A lot of players have expressed that they would appreciate the ability to interact with Senpai in some way, and that Senpai should not accept a love confession from a random stranger. However, I have established that the protagonist cannot control herself in Senpai's presence, so directly interacting with him cannot be an option. Instead, I think it should be possible to leave anonymous letters and anonymous gifts for Senpai. The letters / gifts would only be effective if the player took the time to stalk Senpai and learn about his interests and hobbies. This way, the player could develop a bond between Senpai and the protagonist without direct interaction. The strength of this bond would have an effect on the ending of the game.

However, at this point in time, I have not yet committed to this plan. This is only an idea.

What kind of weapons are in the game? How many weapons will the final game have?

I am only planning on including weapons that a student could reasonably find in a high-school. The high-school in Yandere Simulator will have a wide variety of clubs, so there should be a lot of potential to find interesting weapons. There will probably not be any projectile weapons or guns in the game.

I've come up with a list of about 30 weapons that I'd like to have in the final game. These weapons won't be available in the game's first official demo, since I don't want to give away too much in the demo.

I'd like to include as many weapons as possible in the final game, but the actual number of weapons will be determined by modeller support / animator support / budget size.

Will this game have one environment (school) or multiple environments?

For now, the scope of the game is limited to the school and the protagonist's house. I would love to include as many environments in the game as possible, but each environment would require modeling, texturing, sound effects, unique characters with unique animations, etc. For each environment I'd like to add to the game, I'd need a team of volunteers willing to create it, or I'd need a large budget so that I could hire some people to build more environments for me.

The PC version of the game is currently my top priority. Creating and uploading a build of the game is very time-consuming, so I can't justify working on multiple platforms right now; I have to maintain my focus exclusively on PC for the time being. I won't export Mac or Linux builds of the game until after the first official rival is implemented.

Developing games for console is extremely expensive, so this is something that I can't promise unless Yandere Simulator is financially successful, or unless I host a crowd-funding campaign to raise funds for releasing the game on other platforms.

Yandere Simulator may seem like a simple game at this point in time, but the final version of the game will be extremely complex. It is extremely unlikely that a mobile device such as the 3DS, Vita, iPhone, or Android could ever run the full version of Yandere Simulator. In order to run on a mobile device, the game would have to be simplified so much that it wouldn't even be fun anymore.

Can I help you program the game?

I am currently receiving some very useful programming assistance from some trusted volunteers. I don't need to ask for any more programming help at this point in time.

Is the game going to be free? How much is it going to cost?

Yandere Simulator will be free until I am ready to include two rivals in the game. After that point, the game will have so much content that it will no longer be reasonable to give it away for free, and I'll have to start charging money for it. After the second rival has been implemented, but before the final release date of the game, Yandere Simulator will be sold for a very cheap price (probably something along the lines of $5).

The price and release date of the final game will depend on a lot of different factors. The most important factor is the fund-raising campaign.

If the fundraiser doesn't reach its goal, the final game may have low production values, and might not have all of the features that I've been talking about. The game would be released a few months after the fundraiser, and the price would be pretty low; around $5 - $10.

If the Kickstarter raises the bare minimum amount of money required to fund the project, the final game will have everything I've promised. It will probably be released about one year after the Kickstarter ends, and will probably cost $10 - $15.

If the Kickstarter raises a ton of money and reaches some of its "stretch" goals, then I would be able to implement many of the features that people have been asking for. This would mean that the game would remain in development for a longer period of time, but would be a much better product. In this scenario, the game would probably cost $15 ~ $20.

Who are you, anyway?

I'm YandereDev! I worked at a video game company for 3 years, then left to become a freelance programmer and pursue my dream of becoming an independent game developer. In the past, I've worked on 5 console games (for Wii, 360, and PS3) and 5 mobile games (for Vita and iPhone).

Are you making the entire game by yourself, or is there a team? I want to help you with the game! How can I help?

You can find the answers to these questions on the "Volunteer" page.

When will the first official rival be implemented?

I estimate that the first official rival will be implemented in late 2019. If not, then she will definitely be completed in early 2020.

Is it okay to use Yandere Simulator models in my parody video?

I don't have any problem with that, as long as you're only using the models for a parody video, and not a video game that you will charge money for.

Will there be a sequel?

I don't think it would be wise to plan a sequel before the original game has been finished...but, aside from that, there are multiple factors to consider:

If the game is a critical success (people love it) but a financial failure (few people buy it) then I won't have a budget to make a sequel with.

If the game is a financial success (many people buy it) but a critical failure (people hate it) then there would be no demand for a sequel.

If people are 100% satisfied with the original game and don't feel that a sequel is necessary, then there probably won't be a sequel.

If I get really sick of Yandere Simulator by the time it is finished, then I will have no desire to make a sequel.

All of the above factors (critical reception, financial success, fan demand, my own feelings) will be considered when deciding whether or not to develop a sequel.

Will it ever be possible to kidnap male students?

The original plan was that it would only be possible for the player to kidnap rivals. Right now, it's possible for the player to kidnap non-rival students because I needed to be able to easily test the kidnapping feature, even without a rival implemented. I don't know whether or not I will expand the kidnapping feature to allow the player to kidnap anyone, or implement the kidnapping feature as originally intended: as a feature for rivals only.

Will there be LGBT students in the game?

If I decide that any of the game's characters are LGBT, I'll keep that information to myself. I won't publicly announce the sexualities or gender identities of any of the characters, and there won't be super-obvious clues within the game.

In the future, will students carry bookbags at school?

If students carried bookbags, this would result in a lot of changes to their routine. They would have to start their day by going to their classroom and putting their bookbag on their desk; they wouldn't be able to go about their normal routine until they had done this. They would also have to collect their bookbag from their class before leaving school for the day. To design a challenging experience for the player, I need complete control over exactly where a student will be standing, and exactly when they will be standing there. Adding bookbags to their routine would complicate the routine, so it's not likely to be something that I'll add to the game.

Will there be holidays or festivals at school?

I think it would be really cool if the school changes on certain days, like holidays or festivals. It would be a lot of fun to design challenges or elimination opportunities around once-a-year school events. However, adding a bunch of holiday-themed decorations to the school would require a lot of assets, and changing every student's routine to be related to the holiday would also take a lot of time. Although I think this type of feature would be really cool, it's something that I can't really guarantee and don't really want to promise, because I know that it would create huge amounts of work.

Will the final game have easter eggs and debug commands?

The game's current "Easter Eggs" aren't really hidden; you just open a menu and press a button to activate them. In the future, I think that the player should have to meet some very, very specific criteria to activate an easter egg - for example, dismembering 10 students' arms in order to unlock the "Demon Arms" easter egg. The player might also have to enter a cheat code at the main menu to enable the use of easter eggs or supernatural events. Entering this cheat code and using an easter egg would prevent the playing from being able to acquire any Achievements, and would result in a "non-canon" joke ending. The only way to get a proper ending would be to avoid the use of any cheats or easter eggs.

As for debug commands, there might be a way to access them in the final game, but it will involve entering a password at the title screen (and will disable Achievements).

Some of the students have really goofy names! Are those names final?

I also feel uncomfortable with some of the current names. I'd like to give some of the characters more realistic names, but it also feels very strange to re-name characters.

I have a solution, though. In a future build of the game, it will be revealed that many of the students' current names are actually "nicknames". Their nickname - and their real name - will appear in their Student Info screen.

What will you do after Yandere Simulator is finished?

It'll depend on a large number of factors, most of which I can't accurately predict at this point in time.

1. First, I'll listen to feedback from users and make adjustments to the game to improve the overall experience and remove bugs / exploits.
2. Then, I'll take a vacation and catch up on all the anime/video games I've been missing out on for the past few years.

3a. Then, if there is demand for additional content, I'll design and develop DLC, such as additional rivals to eliminate.
3b. Then, if there is demand for a sequel, a prequel, or a spinoff game, I may begin developing Yandere Simulator 2.
3b. However, if there is no demand for DLC / spinoffs, then I won't bother making either.

4a. By the time Yandere Simulator is finished, I'll have all of the assets necessary to create a game set in a Japanese high school. So, I might create a game that re-uses many of the assets used to create Yandere Simulator.
4b. However, by the time Yandere Simulator is finished, I might be sick of Japanese high schools, and I might never want to make a similar game ever again. In this case, my next game will be completely unrelated to Japanese high schools.

Will there be male teachers in the final game?

Female animations are incompatible with a male skeleton. In order to implement male teachers, I would need male versions of each female teacher animation - as well as male versions of each female voice line. This isn't impossible, but it would require me to ask for a lot of assets, and it would be kind of time-consuming to implement. I might implement male teachers one day, but because it's not necessary for gameplay, it's not a high priority, so you might be waiting a while for it.

If a rival is eliminated non-lethally, will she continue to attend school?

If the player defeats a rival non-lethally (and doesn't get them expelled or sent to jail) then the rival will continue to attend school on subsequent days/weeks. They shouldn't be an obstacle to the player, or else the player will regret saving them - so, peacefully-eliminated rivals will spend most of their time far away from the player; for example, studying in the library.

Why does the school permit an Occult Club to exist?

The headmaster of the school is not superstitious; he doesn't believe in ghosts or demons or magic. He thinks it's absolutely harmless for a bunch of students to have a club revolving around occult research. He doesn't think it's a productive field of study, but he has decided that he doesn't have the right to tell young people what passions they should or should not pursue.

How many students will be in the final game?

I think that there must be a bare minimum of 90 students at school in order for me to craft fun/interesting/challenging situations for the player. After 90 students are present at school, I will begin working on improving the game's performance (increasing the framerate, fixing problems related to rendering/animation/physics, refactoring the code, etc). After I have optimized the game as much as possible, I will analyze how much the framerate has improved, which will determine whether or not I can afford to put more students into the game. If I can increase the number of students from 90 to 100 without the framerate dropping significantly, then I will be able to bring back "fan favorite" characters, such as the Rainbow Twelve. However, since I have not yet begun the optimization phase yet, I don't actually know whether or not I will be limited to 90 students or more, and I don't actually know whether or not I will be able to keep the Rainbow Twelve in the game.

Are you going to change Yandere Simulator's character models?

I am dissatisfied with Yandere Simulator's current character models for multiple reasons:

From an aesthetic standpoint, I dislike the way they look; their necks are super short, and their proportions make them look more like middle-schoolers than high-schoolers.

From a practical standpoint, their faces don't have much flexibility, so they lack the ability to express extreme emotions, and aren't able to be very expressive in general.

From a technical standpoint, some parts of their bodies are super low-poly, which makes them look really weird when I rotate or resize those parts of the model.

From a game design standpoint, it would be better to have models that are custom-designed for the purposes that the models need to be used for (for example, if I want to make it possible to chop off students' limbs, the character models should be built with that feature in mind).

And from yet another standpoint, it's just super inconvenient that their clothing is combined with their bodies. It would be better to have a single "base" model and then a variety of clothing models.

For all of these reasons - and more - I want a new set of character models to be created for Yandere Simulator. (I would like to keep the same general "art style" of the current models, but with a few tweaks to make them more appealing.)

However, whether or not Yandere Simulator gets new character models is dependent on the outcome of the game's crowdfunding campaign, so it's currently impossible to promise whether or not it will actually happen, or when it will happen.

Will it be possible to knock students unconscious?

Being able to knock someone unconscious at any time / location would create a large number of new scenarios. Here are some examples:

Students reacting to the sight of seeing someone get knocked out.

Students reacting to discovering an unconscious body.

Students attempting to wake up unconscious students.

Unconscious students waking up and reacting to their situation.

Previously-unconscious students going to the nurse's room.

End-of-day protocol for teachers who discover an unconscious student while walking around.

Each of these scenarios would involve new animations, new voiced lines, and new code. I have to be selective about what kind of features I add to the game. If one new feature (knocking someone out) has the side-effect of creating at least 7 new scenarios, then I'm unlikely to add it into the game. At this point, I'm only considering features that only create one or two new scenarios.

If the player eliminates their rival on Monday, what happens to the remaining days of the week?

If the player eliminates a rival early, they will be given the option of either proceeding directly to the next week, or continuing to play through the current week. If the player proceeds directly to the next week, they will be asked to allocate the remaining study points that they would have obtained for attending class every day that week.

What circumstances will cause a club to shut down?

If the total number of students in a club drops below 5, the club closes. (If Yandere-chan is in a club, she counts towards the club's population.)

Normal clubs only have 5 members. However, any club containing a rival will have a total population of 6 members, so that the player can kill the rival without losing the club.

When a rival is not at school, one of the members of her club will act as a "substitute leader" who performs all of the functions that the rival would normally perform if she was at school. If a rival dies, her substitute will take over the club and become its new leader.

If a club's substitute dies while a rival is absent from school, the club will shut down, but will re-open when the rival returns to school (as long as the club's 4 other members are still present at school).

A club that does not contain a rival does not use the "substitute leader" system. In other words, the death of the club leader will always result in the club shutting down, even if the club still has 5 living members in it (due to Yandere-chan joining the club).

The game looks like it's going to be really hard! Don't you think you're making it too difficult?

My current priority is to develop a demo that shows off the general experience of playing the game. The game's demo should be interesting and challenging. So, in the demo, the first rival (Osana) will be moderately difficult. But, in the final game, Osana will be the easiest rival, and every other rival will get progressively harder than the previous one. In other words, the game's current level of difficulty (as a debug sandbox for testing features) doesn't reflect how difficult the final game is actually going to be.

A lot of rooms in the school are empty. What are your plans for these rooms?

I think that every room in the school should serve a gameplay-related purpose, and have a practical reason for existing. I don't think there should be any rooms that serve no purpose, or any rooms that students never bother to enter.

Some of the school's current rooms don't serve a purpose, and it's very hard to come up with any reason why a student (or the player) might go inside of that room. These unneccesary, pointless rooms may be removed in the future. If I remove these rooms, I will either replace them with more useful rooms, or I will extend the size of the school's other rooms.

Will students in the final game have different heights and different body types?

I don't want every character in the game to have an identical body, but giving each character a different height can result in animation problems. For example, imagine a handshake animation between two characters that are the same height, and then imagine a handshake between a very short person and a very tall person. These two characters couldn't use the normal handshake animation; they would need to use a custom animation. Also, many killing animations involve the protagonist stabbing a certain spot on her victim's body (head, neck, heart) and if victims have different heights then the animation might look wrong. Also, if characters have different body types, then their animations might cause their arms/legs to clip into their body; for example, a very overweight student would need a different "hands on hips" animation than other students.

It would be extremely easy to make characters have different heights, but it could result in animation problems, clipping problems, etc, so it's not something I am planning on doing at this point in time. It's possible that, if the game gets new character models, the new character models might be set up in a way that allows them to easily have different body types without clipping problems. However, it's too soon to promise this.

Will it be possible to matchmake any two characters with each other, or only pre-determined characters?

The current matchmaking process involves Yandere-chan giving instructions to another character via an earpiece. A character would only be willing to put an earpiece into their ear and take instructions from Yandere-chan if they were hopelessly in love with another character, and desperately desired a relationship.

Because the current matchmaking process requires one student to already have romantic feelings for another student, matchmaking can only occur between pre-determined characters. You can't just convince a random stranger to wear an earpiece and follow instructions without a really good reason. You also can't just make any two arbitrary people fall in love unless they were a good fit for one another in the first place.

At this point in time, under the current matchmaking process, it's very unlikely that the player will have the ability to make any two arbitrary characters fall in love.

Will there be different weather conditions at school over the course of the game?

Probably not. Unique weather conditions (such as rain) would impact many of the game's features and many of the students' routines in numerous significant ways. For example, student routines would have to be adjusted so that they don't go outdoors during rain, blood pools would be washed away by rain, the protagonist's clothing would get wet if she was outside in the rain, characters would have to use umbrellas when walking to school, etc. Weather would change the game in so many different ways that it would drastically increase the amount of work that must be done to complete the game, so it's very unlikely to be added to the game.

Will it be possible for students to get a crush on the protagonist or stalk the protagonist?

Each new feature added to the game extends the game's development time. If I keep adding every new feature that comes to mind, the game will be in development forever, and will never come out. For a long time, I've considered the idea of Yandere-chan developing stalkers, but I don't want to promise this type of feature, because I know that it would just delay development further.

It's possible that having a high reputation might be an imbalanced feature. If the player gets too many advantages from having a high reputation, then I may decide that there should be a downside to having a high reputation; for example, having a high reputation might result in the player developing stalkers.

In other words, I'd consider the possibility of adding crushes / stalkers to the game if it would fix a game design flaw, but I wouldn't consider throwing this feature into the game without a good reason.

What age rating is the game going to receive?

I'm aiming for an "M" rating. If I submit the game for classification and it receives an "Adults Only" rating, I'll have to edit aspects of the game until it receives an "M" rating.

Why does my anti-virus program say that Yandere Simulator is a virus?

An executable can be "signed" with a digital signature that identifies the creator of the executable. If an executable is signed, it's possible to learn the identity of the person who created it, and therefore hold them accountable if their executable was malicious. For this reason, signed executables are considered to be trustworthy, and unsigned executables are considered to be untrustworthy.

To "sign" an executable, you need to pay for an expensive "code signing certificate". A code-signing certificate costs hundreds of dollars per year. I have not bought one yet.

Some antivirus vendors go as far as declaring any executable (*.exe file) to be "malware" or "suspicious" if it does not have a digital signature. This is a very bad approach, and a lot of independent developers have had problems because of this. It is easy for a big company buy a digital certificate, which will be used to sign software, but it's not easy for an independent developer working on a freeware app.

In short: Some virus scanners say that Yandere Simulator is a virus (or "suspicious") because I haven't started paying hundreds of dollars to sign the executable.

Will Yandere Simulator ever be translated into other languages?

I can only speak English, so I would have to rely on help from others in order to translate the game into other languages.

Because I am constantly making changes and additions to the game's text, it's not feasible to translate the game right now, while it is still in development. I can't begin to consider having the game's text translated until after the game is 100% complete, and the text is guaranteed not to change anymore.

Even then, the game can only receive a translation if we meet certain funding goals, or if I obtain a publisher who is willing to handle the translation for me.

When I try to play the game, the entire screen is pink. What's wrong?

I have been unable to determine why the screen is pink for some people; I only have a theory.

If the screen is pink, this is an indication that essential files were deleted. These files may have been automatically deleted by your anti-virus program. Try disabling your anti-virus program and downloading the game again. Either that, or download the game again from a different source. Please check this webpage for a list of different places to download the game from: https://yanderedev.wordpress.com/downloads/

When I try to use the Yandere Simulator launcher, I get error messages. What should I do?

Please read the giant flashing red text on this webpage:

https://yanderedev.wordpress.com/downloads/

Will Yandere Simulator feature male rivals or DLC rivals?

I don't think it would be wise to plan additional content before the original game has been finished...but, aside from that, there are multiple factors to consider:

If the game is a critical success (people love it) but a financial failure (few people buy it) then I won't have a budget to make additional content with.

If the game is a financial success (many people buy it) but a critical failure (people hate it) then there would be no demand for a additional content.

If people are 100% satisfied with the original game and don't feel that additional content is necessary, then there probably won't be additional content.

If I get really sick of Yandere Simulator by the time it is finished, then I will have no desire to make additional content.

All of the above factors (critical reception, financial success, fan demand, my own feelings) will be considered when deciding whether or not to develop additional content.

Is the player allowed to steal a rival's phone and then leave school with that phone in their possession?

If the player steals a rival's phone, this will prevent many events from taking place. To balance the game, the player will not be allowed to leave school with a stolen phone. If the player does not return a stolen phone by the end of the school day, the rival whose phone was stolen will report the theft to the guidance counselor, who will personally check the belongings of every student at school. The counselor will find the stolen phone in the player's inventory, and the player will be expelled from school, causing a game over.